Shattered
by Kumori-Eclipse
Summary: Picking up the pieces after the fact... But can what's broken really be fixed? Does it want to be? [ Continuation from Escape. ]


A hotel room...not the ideal place to recooperate a bit, but it was better than nothing. It was a roof over his head for the moment and a chance to get a real shower in. The hot water felt beyond incredible, he hadn't realized how tense he had become...how it had become the normal for him. Letting his guard down was non existant back there, he had come to expect more of the worse at every turn. As sad as it sounded, it had prepared him to put up with a lot of the pain that had come with...events. This was the first time he had really been able to even remotely relax in years.

That unfortunately left him more alone with his thoughts as well. Being a man more of mind than sheer force like others he knew, that was not the best thing after all that had happened. Thoughts of Beacon, STEM, MOBIUS...and especially thoughts of both Sebastian and Kidman flowed through his mind. With a sigh, he stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel. Drying off a bit, he ran a hand through his hair to push it back, before slipping his glasses on. His eyes catching sight of his arm with a frown. Light scars pinpricked across his skin, though it wasn't hard to note them as needle marks.

Even if he did go to someone about this, they would probably note the scars if they had an examination done. After being gone so long, that would probably be a given and they would most likely think he'd simply slipped up and given into something darker. He'd never been one to use any kind of drugs, even for medical purposes if he could avoid it and any kind of drinking was rare. It would be an easier brush off for what might be said than accepting the truth though. He couldn't blame them, it was things one saw only in movies or in books. Reality was often safe behind a veil of ignorance.

"Tch..."

Turning away, he got dressed, stepping before the mirror to look at himself a bit as he buttoned up his shirt. What he wasn't expecting, was the shift in his reflection. The darkening of his expression...and the change in his eyes. The deep gray tinged with red that bloomed out until it took over, casting an eerie almost glow behind dark frames.

"Pathetic, hiding away in here while those rats are still out there" his own voice eminated from lips, rippling through the room almost like an echo.

For a moment he ignored it, there was no way in hell his reflection could be talking to him. No way that other side born inside that hell could be here, in the real world, he refused to believe it.

A laugh, "I'm not going anywhere...might have been brought to the surface by a bit of a rough nudge, but let's be honest with ourself...I've always been around."

"That's not true" he finally spoke up.

"So you do know how to talk" the other said, "and it is very much true...Such a pristine shell to protect a dark and hallow inside. You had to have known it was only a matter of time before it all collapsed, Beacon was just an excuse to let the perfection slip."

He glared at the mirror, at himself, "that's a lie, I never wanted that...this...to happen. I tried to prevent it."

"Oh that's right" the reflection laughed, "by putting a gun to our head...twice now, yet the trigger remains unpulled. If that wretch of a man hadn't been there the first time..."

Sebastian...that was right, he had forced the gun away before he could harm himself. Guilt and embarrassment at the memory flared up inside of him.

"Don't even feel bad concerning him" the other's voice turning a bit more sour and cold, "if anything...we owe both him and that bitch a bullet of their own to the head."

He tensed, returning his gaze to crimson hues.

"Betraying us...leaving us to rot" the tone sent a chill down his spine, "neither one of them even gave us a second thought...attempted to do anything."

"We don't know that" he shot back, "Sebastian saw us...me...get shot, he probably thinks I'm dead as far as things go at this point and Kidman..."

"What? Was just 'following orders'?" the other him laughed, "quite a convienient excuse for someone working with the ones who stole three years from us and far more..."

A hand within the reflection lifted, tapping the side of his head. They had invaded his mind, despite resistance. They had tried multiple times to pick away at him and everything he was...to break him down.

"We know them, especially him...better than most" they continued, "it wouldn't be hard to track him down and aim right between the -"

"Shut up!" with words he didn't want to hear whispered in his ear and the itch of something darker in the back of his mind, he'd had enough.

Moving a hand, he slammed the side of his fist into the glass. A sharp sound heard, as the glass cracked and shattered. Tendrils of the breakage curling up along what fragments were left of the mirror as pieces clinked to the floor. Silence fell, leaving the detective to only the growing sting in his hand and the light crimson trail that was beginning to curl down his arm, soaking a bit into the sleeve of the shirt he had just put on. Pulling away slowly he grabbed a smaller towel from the rack, before wrapping it around his hand and making his way into the bedroom. The room darker, save for a slight beam of light that fell from the crack in the curtains.

"You really think it's that easy to get rid of me?" the voice spoke up again, though he didn't look up enough to even find where the crimson gaze watched from now.

Silence, he did not respond, merely examining his hand a bit to make sure no severe damage had been done.

"You know I am right...you can try to rationalize it away with excuses...Why they did nothing, but eventually it falls away and you know they left you on your own, you're always alone other than with me."

His hand clenched, it wasn't the first time such thoughts had invaded, but he'd been able to keep them at bay for the most part as well. He knew there was more going on than he knew, he did not want to just assume the worse...He did not want to be that selfish, but it still was painful most of all to take this on alone. His eyes flickered over to the gun resting up by the pillows of the bed.

"They all deserve hell...to pay for what they've done."

Standing, he dropped the towel and walked over as the voice continued on..

"The've barley scratched the surface of seeing what we're capable of...as have you."

Reaching down, fingers curled around the gun and slowly lifted it, "we have to stop this...before anyone else gets hurt."

A slight chuckle came from the other, "the only one's getting hurt...will be them."

Finally turning and walking slowly back towards the bathroom, he glanced at the pieces of the glass that lay upon the floor. A fractured reflection of himself looking back at him, those eyes piercing through his...not even the eyes of the monsters within STEM left him with this feeling. Perhaps it was because the eyes staring at him...were his own. This wasn't over...it was far to easy to end so quickly after the hell they'd all been through. No, the end was just the beginning.

"Let's have some fun..."


End file.
